Straight outta TX-22 and in front of the microphone: Rep. Nick Lampson is teaming up with the Veterans Service Office and communications students at UH to help document the stories of American veterans for the Library of Congress. From the department of Did You Know?: “Houston is proud to have the largest concentration of veterans in the United States. We are obligated to do all we can to honor their service,” Lampson said. “The Veterans......

Wow — it's still six months to Christmas, and yet we're getting gifts already: The AP reports that everyone's favorite golden-haired politico, Shelley Sekula Gibbs, is laying the groundwork for her campaign to return to Congress. Oh, yes. Sekula Gibbs (notice that she's dropped the hyphen, which she worried could be a problem during her write-in campaign for Congress last year) announced that she has some high-profile Republican supporters for her 2008 campaign, including homebuilder......

Good morning, Houston. We hope you got your fill of the Texas Legislature, because the 80th session is officially over. Your Senators and Representatives have been hard at work since January, passing lots of bills and making even more news, and now they'll be taking a break. The Houston contingent did us proud, from strip club taxes to baby-selling to overcoming liver transplants. We hope all the Texas political blogs can survive until 2009.......

Good morning, Houston. Did you read the Chronicle over breakfast this morning? We're sure the paper is thanking you: According to the Newspaper Association of America, the Chron lost 2 percent of its circulation in the six-month period ending in March. That's really not so bad compared with drops among some of the other biggest papers in the country: 3.5 percent for The Washington Post, 4.2 percent for the LA Times and a whopping......

Good morning, Houston. We forgot to mention a bit of news last week: According to ForbesTraveler.com, Houston is the sixth-best restaurant city in the country. "San Antonio may have a far more manifest Mexican food culture, but Houston, which spirals forever outward, has far more breadth and depth," the site said; it specifically cited upper-end Tony's, Café Annie and Américas, but also mentioned the Breakfast Klub, with its "irresistible" chicken and waffles. Mmm. >>......

Good morning, Houston! Are you a fan of Texas wildflowers? Good news, then: Thanks to a rainy winter, wildflowers are blooming across Central Texas and in parts of North and East Texas. If you're planning a flower-spottin' trip, check out the latest reports of wildflower hotspots — and remember, though it's really not illegal to pick bluebonnets, TxDOT recommends that you refrain from driving into them. Dang. >> Katrina fraud galore: The AP reports......

Good morning, Houston. We can't remember a time when Ed Brandon wasn't on KTRK — so it'll be odd when he's not on TV anymore. As we learned from Mike McGuff yesterday, Brandon plans to retire in mid-April after 35 years in front of the weather map. McGuff has a long (and fascinating) interview with Brandon; once you've checked that out, you can leave a comment for Ed on Channel 13's website. >> Lampson......

Looks like everyone's favorite brief-tenure congresswoman, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, has made an impact on Washington already: According to Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, former Congressman Tom DeLay's aides quit en masse yesterday, apparently after finding the golden-haired Sekula-Gibbs a little hard to work with. The full text of the Roll Call article is only available to subscribers, but we'll summarize: As you remember, Sekula-Gibbs won the special election last week to fill former Congressman Tom......

Post-election, there's a potentially interesting situation shaping up on the transportation funding subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. That's the group, remember, that OKs federal transit funds — it's the one U.S. Rep. John Culberson sits on, and it is his membership in that subcommittee that allowed Culberson to deal a strong blow to Richmond light rail plans this summer. But here's what may be interesting: With Democratic control of the House, newly elected......

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs told the Chronicle this morning that she will resign her seat on the Houston City Council as soon as the results of Tuesday's Congressional District 22 special election are certified, paving the way for her to head to Washington to spread a little sunshine around the halls of Congress. For a few weeks, anyway. Sekula-Gibbs, a write-in Republican candidate to fill out Tom DeLay's expired term in the House, beat out three other......

Houstonist stayed up half the night glued to our television just to bring you the latest election results, locally, state-wide, and nationally. Let's look at how things went down yesterday. Locally: Much to the mayor's delight, propositions A-H all passed. This means good things for Houston's libraries, parks, police force, airports, etc. Mayor White is keeping the city moving, literally and figuratively. The Chronicle offers complete election results, but we're going to look at a......

If you're Republican CD22 candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, we guess it's pretty cool when the president comes to town to campaign for you — and if you're President George W. Bush, where better to get an enthusiastic reception than Sugar Land? So it seems only natural that Bush turned out yesterday to stump for Sekula-Gibbs, who is trying to win Tom DeLay's congressional seat on a write-in campaign. Bush's visit was largely instructional: "See, if you......

Gov. Rick Perry said he doesn't plan to hold a special election to fill Tom DeLay's seat unless DeLay resigns by the end of the week Meanwhile, DeLay supporters gathered in Sugar Land's fake downtown to heckle Democrat Nick Lampson as he called on DeLay to resign immediately In the Panhandle, several wildfires erupted today, prompting the evacuation of the town of Lefors in Gray County Have a problem with feral cats? Call county animal......

In an interview on KTRH, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said he decided to resign his seat more than a week ago, a move he's making because he's afraid he might lose his bid for re-election and jeopardize Republican control of his House seat. DeLay told Sam Malone he "should have done better" than the 62 percent of the vote with which he won the March 7 primary, and polling showed he only had a 50-50......

First-day individual sales for the Rodeo were up this year, with George Strait's opening-night performance the hottest seller Thousands of people turned out downtown today to see Vince Young in a parade — oh, and to remember MLK, too Gexa Energy's lack of recognition for MLK Day is prompting calls for a boycott against the electricity provider A northeast Harris County woman ran over her granddaughter and another little girl who were playing in her......

More bad news for Tom Delay (R-Sugar Land)… it seems that if he ran for election today, he’d lose to an unknown Democrat. The question was: If Tom DeLay runs for re-election in 2006, in general, are you more likely to vote for the Republican candidate Tom DeLay or for the Democratic Party's candidate for Congress? Tom DeLay: 36% The Democrat: 49% Voters' Opinion of Tom DeLay: Favorable: 37% Unfavorable: 52% Unfamiliar: 11% Of course,......